Dry country

If ever the phrase "unintended consequences" applied to a situation, it does to the epic story of the 18th Amend­ment, added to the U.S. Consti­tution in 1919, and its undoing by the 21st Amendment 14 years later. Prohibition of the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors," enshrined in law as the Volstead Act, did initially suppress alcohol consumption in the U.S., but almost immediately it also produced a flourishing black market, organized crime and disorganized politics.